Posted on 10/30/2002 3:01:42 AM PST by kattracks
Capitol Hill (CNSNews.com) - An investigator who assisted in the appeal of Timothy McVeigh's conviction for the Oklahoma City bombing, disputes claims by a former television reporter that former members of the Iraqi military were involved in the 1995 attack.
Investigator Cate McCauley says the claims made by Jayna Davis, the former TV reporter, are "easily refutable."
Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) met Oct. 10 with Davis, a former investigative reporter for an Oklahoma City television station, about an alleged connection between McVeigh and foreign terrorists. Specter told Davis her claim "warrants an inquiry."
"We will pursue it," Specter said, after hearing a one-hour presentation from Davis.
"We will send it over to the FBI and we will continue to look at it," he told Davis during the meeting, which was broadcast live on the Michael Smerconish talk show on "1210 The Big Talker," WPHT radio in Philadelphia.
As CNSNews.com previously reported, Davis presented Specter with 22 notarized statements from Oklahoma residents who have identified eight Middle Eastern men, allegedly former Iraqi soldiers, who the witnesses claim collaborated with Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols in the bombing plot.
But McCauley, a licensed private investigator who was appointed by the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado to assist with McVeigh's appeal, had harsh criticism for Davis' claims.
"This is perhaps the worst case of misinformation and pandering I have ever seen in this case," McCauley said of Davis' meeting with Specter. "Davis' theories were dismissed long ago for very good reasons."
McCauley said she is speaking out because Davis' contact with Specter means that taxpayers' money is now being "wasted" to re-investigate the allegations. She also noted that a gag order on everyone involved with the investigation was lifted after McVeigh's 2001 execution, so she is free to discuss details that she could not disclose in the past.
The McVeigh appellate team spent months pouring over all of the case files, reports and memoranda from the original investigation prior to filing its appeal in March of 2000. That process included reviewing 42,000 leads phoned in to the toll-free tip line set up just after the bombing, and the 20,000-plus FBI "302s," lead sheets generated from those tips.
Who Was John Doe #2?
"Seven of those witnesses place Hussain Al-Hussaini in the company of Timothy McVeigh, riding in the Ryder truck, the morning of the bombing, stepping out of that truck at ground zero, directly in front of the federal building moments before the massive fertilizer bomb exploded and speeding away from downtown in a brown Chevrolet pickup that matched the FBI's all points bulletin for foreign suspects that morning," Davis told Specter during their Oct. 10 meeting.
But McCauley told CNSNews.com the trial court and the FBI heard from those witnesses, as well.
"There are witnesses who I'm aware of on that list, who changed their testimony over time or, in the case of [a particular witness], were terribly traumatized and confused by the bombing," McCauley said. "If you go through the list of these witnesses, you will find things that have changed, or you will find people that are saying they had seen McVeigh when McVeigh was hundreds of miles away."
Mike Moroz, who claimed he had seen Al-Hussaini with McVeigh in the infamous Ryder truck used in the bombing, was one of the witnesses cited by Davis.
"In an affidavit, Mike Moroz, a worker at Johnny's Tire Service, a few blocks from the Murrah Building, said that at about 8:30 a.m. on April 19, the day of the bombing, McVeigh pulled up in his Ryder truck and asked for directions," the LA Weekly reported in a Sept. 28, 2001 story on Davis. "He insisted there was another man sitting in the truck cab. Moroz told Davis he had picked McVeigh out of a live FBI lineup. He also said Al-Hussaini, as shown in one of KFOR's surveillance photos, could have been the man he saw."
But, according to FBI records, McCauley claims Moroz did not positively identify McVeigh.
"The FBI questioned Moroz immediately after the bombing. He was one of four people asked to participate in a live line-up. Moroz picked two men, one of which was McVeigh," she explained. "In the world of eyewitness identification, that would be considered a miss."
Davis acknowledged that Moroz identified two people from the line-up, but said the FBI "302" from the session indicated that he "leaned strongly" toward the "real McVeigh." The line-up, Davis alleged, was comprised of McVeigh and three soldiers from a nearby Army fort, whose appearance was almost identical to McVeigh's.
McCauley said the person Davis claimed was Al-Hussaini was later identified as Todd Bunting, an Army private who was at the Ryder rental office almost exactly 24 hours after McVeigh rented the truck used in the bombing. His physical appearance - including a distinctive tattoo on his arm - is identical to the description and sketch of John Doe #2.
FBI Refusal to Accept Witness Affidavits
Davis claimed she tried to surrender the 22 witness statements and corroborating documentation she uncovered to the FBI in 1997, but requested that agents sign a notarized receipt for the evidence. She said, after consulting with "the legal department," they refused to accept the documents.
McCauley said that's not the entire story.
"There's something missing from the story about why the FBI refused [Davis'] information," she said. "When Ms. Davis walked off her job at KFOR in March 1997 she took her materials. The station sued her in order to retrieve what they considered their property."
FBI Agent Dan Vogel told the LA Weekly in a Sept. 28, 2001, interview that the litigation made agents wary of accepting the documents.
"I was told we gave the affidavits back to her because there was some question of ownership," he said, "whether she or KFOR had legal rights to the material."
In an Oct 29, 2002, letter to Specter, Davis stated that "I interviewed the witnesses and drafted the summary reports on my own time with my personal resources and computer equipment ... ownership of the documents the FBI refused to receive from me in 1997 was never in dispute before the court. Once again, I compiled the dossier after leaving the station."
'She's Standing on the Graves of Thousands'
"What Ms. Davis has been running around with for the past number of years, I think, is just not complete. It's factually incorrect," McCauley charged. "I think that there are many good answers to these questions and I think she's whipping up a frenzy for whatever reason, I don't know. But, I don't like the fact that she's standing on the graves of thousands of people."
McCauley said that, while she knows Davis' information is incorrect, she does not question the former reporter's motives.
"She's like a lot of people who got attached to a very small package of information and has convinced herself that this is right and this is just," McCauley speculated. "But they simply don't have all the information or, it seems, the discipline necessary to go through investigative material.
"You can't cling to things you want," McCauley concluded, "and ignore the things you don't like."
Davis told CNSNews.com that she stands by the information she has collected and the witnesses she has interviewed.
"I think that there's other evidence that refutes what Cate McCauley is putting forth," Davis said. "Her credentials are highly suspect. She worked very long for the Charles Key investigation."
McCauley was the executive director of an investigation lead by Oklahoma State Rep. Charles Key from 1997 to 1999.
"It became apparent that [members of Key's committee] refused to look at certain evidence that didn't fit their theories," McCauley explained. "In March 1999, I resigned from Key's committee because they were going to publish falsehoods, which I flatly refused to take part in."
Sen. Specter's office did not return calls seeking information about the status of his requests to the FBI.
E-mail a news tip to Jeff Johnson.
Send a Letter to the Editor about this article.
If the ATF thought they could get away with this farrago, they had underestimated the 23-year-old redhead and her affable stepfather. Curiosity piqued, the Wilburns tried their hand as amateur sleuths. With the help of a freelance reporter, John (J.D.) Cash, Glenn contacted the Midwestern Elevator Co., the firm that had actually searched the elevators for survivors.
The first thing we did was split up and check, then double check, each elevator for occupants," explained Duane James, one of the engineers. "We found that five of the six elevators were frozen between floors, and a sixth had stopped near floor level.... We had to go in through the ceilings of the elevators to check for people.... All were empty."
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Does anyone know if there is a connection/relationship between "falling elevator" survivor ATF Agent Alex McCauley and the Jayna Davis critic Cate McCauley ?
In my opinion, Cate McCauley has been working for the FBI since her earliest involvement in the OKC bombing investigation. If an organization can infiltrate Elohim City(for example Carol Howe), how hard would it be to "infiltrate" an investigation committee? The feds have a history of using women in this effort.
That was one of the first questions I asked Cate McCauley when I started working with OKBIC; she swore (literally) and vehemently denied any connection...
The Midwest Elevator (Otis) inspectors also testified that NONE of the elevators had tripped override mechanisms -- that NO elevaotor in the MB "free-fell" on the day of the bombing.
Many of the photos I used in my section of the OKBIC Report were made by Oscar Johnson of Midwest Elevator during the time he and his staff operated the two working elevators for the rescue, etc. crews. I reviewed hundreds of Oscar's digital photos -- and we corresponded via e-mail over the span of a year or more. He told me -- personally -- that if Alex McCauley (ATF) and Dave Schickendanz (DEA) had actually free-fallen six floors, his staff would have found them still in the elevators -- "in a heap of broken bones".
The 'agents in the elevators' story was an absolute pack of lies -- yet the OK prosecutors managed to snow the OK Grand Jurors into believing this Fed farce. Just another measure of the worthlessness of the railroaded conclusions produced by that GJ...
Caught & fixed that same typo in a couple of other spots. Fingers aren't working right tonight -- must be Halloween or something...
Research indicates she has definately changed her tune, like 180 degrees. I don't have a run down on her pedigree. Maybe a "stringer" ?
No research needed -- I observed her personality change and attitude "flip" first hand.
It's 'way past bedtime amd I'm to tired to elaborate, but tomorrow I'll return to this thread and share with the OKC listers what transpired when she "turned her coat". (It wasn't pretty...)
Stringer? Plant? Fed Op? Hadn't seriously considered the possibilities -- until I read this article...
Self-evident...G'nite, all...
From yesterday's thread: McVeigh Defense Investigator Questions Senator's Probe
Anyone know if this Cate McCauley is credible?
I checked some articles about the case and have some questions regarding her involvement in the case.
For example, this article says she is a licensed private investigator. But an article from AP - May 9, 2001 says she stopped working as a graphic designer in 1997 to investigate the case. She was a witness at McVeigh's execution.
Another interesting thing to note is that she was the former executive director of the Oklahoma Bombing Investigative Committtee (this is OK state rep. Charles Key's initiative) AND she was a former member of McVeigh's defense team as an investigator during the appeals process. The article above points out that she was appointed to assist in the defense of McVeigh during the appeals process. Anyone know when this appointment was made? She quit the OK Bombing Investigative Committee convinced that McVeigh, Nichols, and Fortier were the sole perps in the crime, saying that she would not support the conclusions of the committee (and Charles Key) that the bombing was initiated by a larger conspiracy perhaps involving foreign parties.
I am confused. If she quit the committee because she didn't agree there was a larger conspiracy afoot, and believed McVeigh was responsible, why would she be assigned to work as an investigator during his appeal?
Is anyone more familiar with this Cate McCauley's involvement in the case? Unfortunately I don't have a lot of time to track some of this stuff down, but my cursory search makes me wonder about her credibility. Who is more credible here, McCauley or Davis?
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Anyway, several of my questions have already been answered on this thread, but if anyone has some additional comments, I would love to hear them.
please continue. nothing like 1st hand information.
amazing what a little money can buy these days.
"At 4:00 P.M., clearly afraid it was going to be either scooped or enjoined, The Dallas Morning News published the story on its internet webdite. It had "legally obtained" defense documents, it told a global audience, proving that McVeigh had confessed to a defense investigator. Now, if Timothy McVeigh had ever made a genuine admission of guilt, he would not make it, in passing, to an investigator; he would make it to me as his counsel."
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Anybody want to take a guess at who the "defense investigator" in question was?
"Kate McCauley at one time worked for Charles Keys Citizens Investigation Committee. But McCauley also worked with two other investigators who also once worked directly for State Rep Charles Key, JD Cash and Roger Charles. Cash and Charles had a very close working relationship with attorney Stephen Jones at one time. Just before the McVeigh trial Jones reported that very large quantities of computerized defense documents had been stolen. Jones stated publicly he thought he knew who stole the documents but Jones never publicly revealed who stole the documents."
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In his book, Jones goes out of his way to suggest that "X", the defense investigator that handed over thousands of defense documents to the Dallas Morning News was a male. Does anyone know if Roger Charles ever worked as a defense investigator for Jones? Jones states in his book that some of the defense investigators he hired were never known to the public.
Roger Charles
SUMMARY OF PERFORMANCE:
Award-winning investigative journalist, consultant and confidential advisor with unique experience in a broad range of national security affairs. Demonstrated areas of achievement are:
investigating military, intelligence and law enforcement activities at the national level when congressional oversight and media coverage had failed to get the story right;
uncovering human interest-stories where "the system" dealt in a grossly unfair and too-often deadly manner with American citizens, both civilians and Service members, and their families;
advising journalists and attorneys on sources and methods of investigating national security issues and incidents, especially those considered sensitive by the military and by law enforcement and intelligence agencies.
PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES
June 1997 - Present. Free-lance journalist and investigator for: Oklahoma City Bombing Committee (August 1997-February 1998); ABC News (October 1997); National Security News Service (September 1998-March 2000); BBC news magazine Correspondent (October 1999-March 2000) as Assistant Producer, "The Other Lockerbie"; England & Company Entertainment Productions (January-March 2000), supporting web site for Paramount movie, "Rules of Engagement"; Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, Ltd. (April 2000-present) - consultant for proposed series on Cold War military and intelligence operations.
March - June 1997. Defense investigator for Attorney Stephen Jones. Collected and analyzed information on the Oklahoma City bombing case (U.S.A. vs. McVeigh).
August 1996-February 1997. Free-lance investigative reporter with ABC News 20/20 for a special project (as assistant producer) on Oklahoma City bombing.
1993-1996. Investigative reporter, National Security News Service: Developed pieces for ABC News 20/20, ABC World News Tonight, ABC Nightline, ABC News Prime Time Live, CNN Prime News and 20 20 TV (British). Advised and supported numerous print and electronic media outlets, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report, the New Yorker, CBS 60 Minutes and Frontline. Investigated and broke the story of Adm. Jeremy M. Boorda, Chief of Naval Operations, fraudulently wearing combat insignia.
1990-1993. Investigative reporter and consultant: Special Correspondent, Newsweek - Developed and co-authored cover story, "Sea of Lies" (July 13, 1992). Awarded "1993 Medal for Excellence in Investigative Reporting" by Investigative Reporters and Editors (I.R.E.); Consultant, ABC News (Nightline) Special Investigation which aired July 1, 1992, "The USS Vincennes: Public War, Secret War" (one of four finalists for 1992 Emmy for best investigative piece); Consultant, Analytical Systems Engineering Corporation - Senior analyst; developed operational and tactical scenarios for combat simulation models.
1967-1990: Career Marine Corps officer with a variety of field and staff assignments. Concentrations in intelligence and operations. Served as a staff officer in sensitive positions with both:
the Office of the Secretary of Defense (1987-1990) as program coordinator for Nonlethal Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and Tactical Intelligence And Related Activities. the Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (1980-1982) as a Regional Desk Officer monitoring and evaluating military, diplomatic and intelligence activities in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa for the National Military Command Center, and as an Emergency Procedures Officer who reviewed and executed procedures for control of strategic nuclear forces by the National Command Authority. Held Top Secret clearance with access to Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI), Extremely Sensitive Information (ESI) and a number of Special Access Programs.
Member, editorial board, Marine Corps Gazette (1987-1989).
Published in Newsweek, Insight, The Washington Times, The Baltimore Sun, The Chicago Tribune, Soldier of Fortune, Proceedings of the U.S. Naval Institute, and the Marine Corps Gazette.
EDUCATION
Georgetown University, M.A., National Security Studies, 1987
U.S. Naval War College (with Highest Distinction), 1981 Marine Corps Command and Staff College, 1980
U.S. Naval Academy, B.S., General Engineering & History, 1967
CONFESSION CONTROVERSY
March 3, 1997
TRANSCRIPT
KWAME HOLMAN: The Dallas Morning News reported Friday that Timothy McVeigh confessed to the Oklahoma City bombing which killed 168 people and injured more than 500 others in April of 1995. The newspaper published the information first on its Web site then in an article in its Saturday edition. The paper’s reporter, Pete Slover, said he based the article on confidential notes taken by McVeigh’s defense team while meeting with him in jail. The article quoted McVeigh as saying he wanted a daytime attack on the Alfred Murrah Federal Building in order to ensure the body count
Investigated and broke the story of Adm. Jeremy M. Boorda, Chief of Naval Operations, fraudulently wearing combat insignia
There is substantial evidence suggesting Admiral Jeremy Boorda was murdered, not the least of which is that Admiral Boorda was found with two bullet holes in his chest,according to those that examined the body. The ridiculous cover story provided for the suicide of the ranking Admiral in the entire U.S. Navy was that years earlier he had worn a "V" device on two of his ribbons related to service in Vietnam improperly.Despite the fact the claim was bogus, the media bought it hook line and sinker. And now Roger Charles is taking credit for a bogus story that was as used to cover up the murder of the Chief of Naval Operations of the U.S. Navy.
Let me be more specific about the "V" device. Admiral Boorda served on a warship in the waters off the coast of Vietnam during the Vietnam War. The ship he was on participated in combat operations in unfriendly waters. This without question entitled Admiral Boorda to wear the Vietnam Service Medal ribbon. Roger Charles's claim is that because Admiral Boorda did not physically stand on Vietnam soil and only served in the unfriendly waters off the coast of Vietnam on a warship, he did not earn the right to wear the "V" device for valor on his ribbon.
The Charles claim and the media's feeding frenzy on the false claim is an insult to every man that has ever served on a warship performing combat operations in unfriendly waters. How many of our sailors have died on warships in unfriendly waters in a time of war? To suggest there is no valor in such service to our country exposes much more about Mr. Charles than it does about a true American hero, Admiral Jeremy "Mike" Boorda.
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